Goodbye Beram Kayal, the player who kick started the Brighton revolution

Beram Kayal announcing his Brighton departure hardly came as a surprise. He hasn’t played a single minute for the Albion this season and with his contract expiring, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be leaving come the end of the campaign.

And yet there was still an outpouring of grief at the news. Which just goes to show you what a special player Beram Kayal was during his five-and-a-half years at the Amex Stadium, in which Brighton went from Championship strugglers to an established Premier League club.

In many ways, Kayal was the player who kick started the Albion revolution. Not only was he Chris Hughton’s first signing as Brighton manager, but he was also the first player bought by the club following David Burke’s sacking as Head of Football Operations.

Kayal’s arrival represented a change in approach. Following Gus Poyet’s departure, Brighton had been trying to do things on the cheap. Oscar Garcia achieved miracles in taking a mid table squad into the top six in the 2013-14 season before an even further tightening of the purse strings for 2014-15.

As a result, future Premier League winner Leonardo Ulloa was replaced by Chris O’Grady. Stephen Ward was swapped for Joe Bennett. Aaron Hughes came in for Matt Upson. Greg Halford, Paddy McCourt and Adrian Colunga were there instead of Adam El-Abd, Andrea Orlandi and Ashley Barnes.

At one point in autumn 2014, Brighton had so many loan players that they had to drop one from the squad to avoid breaking the limit of five per matchday squad.

Brighton & Hove Albion had become Brighton & Loan Albion and when you combined such a poor team with a manager so clearly out of his depth in Sami Hyypia, it spelt trouble. Which is why the Seagulls were staring League One in the face.

When Hyypia’s resignation was finally accepted and Burke was handed his P45 days later, Brighton realised that they needed to spend actual money on quality players if they were to return to challenging at the right end of the Championship table.

Which is where Kayal came in. Hughton paid £250,000 to Celtic for Kayal’s services in January 2015, he made his debut as an 85th minute substitute at home to Nottingham Forest and by the 90th minute, had scored his first goal in Brighton colours.

Five minutes was all it took for Brighton fans to realise that Hughton had signed a special talent. The days of Gary Gardner pussyfooting around in the middle of the park were over; the Albion had not just a Championship quality midfielder, but a player who would go onto be one of the best in that position at that level over the next two-and-a-half seasons.

Kayal’s signing brought renewed hope, which explains his popularity. If Hughton was allowed to bring in more players like the Israeli international, then perhaps we could avoid relegation to League One. Brighton of course went far beyond that.

So good was Kayal in helping Brighton stay in the Championship that he finished third in our WeAreBrighton.com 2014-15 Player of the Season vote – despite only being at the Amex for half the campaign.

In the 2015-16 season, Kayal formed arguably the best midfield partnership in the Championship alongside Dale Stephens as the Albion missed out on automatic promotion to Middlesbrough by a couple of goals.

He missed just three league games all season – and they ended in a draw with Preston North End, a hammering at Cardiff City and a draw with Sheffield Wednesday. When Kayal was out, Brighton were never the same team.

Even more impressive than Kayal’s form was that he spent most of the campaign playing through injury. He was willing to put his body and his health on the line for Brighton, which just added to the regard in which he was held by the Albion faithful.

Kayal missed large chunks of the 2016-17 season through injury but he still played an important role in helping Brighton finally reach the Premier League.

Those fitness struggles sadly continued into the 2017-18 season. Kayal broke his leg on the eve of the Albion’s debut Premier League campaign; by the time he returned, Davy Propper had established a seemingly unbreakable partnership with Stephens and the £15 million capture of Yves Bissouma added further competition for the 2018-19 campaign.

Kayal had to be patient, but he finally got a run of top flight games in October 2018. With Beram Kayal in the side, Brighton recorded three consecutive 1-0 wins over West Ham United, Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers. He even notched the winner at St James’ Park when deflecting in Jose Izquierdo’s powerful shot for his first and only Premier League goal.

That form continued into the next month when Kayal was voted our WeAreBrighton.com November 2018 Player of the Month. Hughton was not as impressed as our readers though; Kayal lost his place following a 1-1 home draw with Leicester City and had to settle for a bit-part role for the remainder of the campaign.

Writing on social media after announcing his departure, Kayal said: “I have absolutely loved every minute here at Brighton. All the good times we’ve had together, going from the Championship to the Premier League and now managing to secure Premier League status for the third year in a row is a huge accomplishment.”

“It was amazing to share those incredible scenes at the Amex when we clinched promotion and at the seafront parade. This is one of the best memories in my career so far, and will last with me forever.”

“Last but not least I cannot thank the fans enough. You have made me and my family feel at home from the first minute, and Brighton will always feel like my home.”

“With football there are always ups and downs and I had my fair share of injuries etc, but I always gave 100% effort. Brighton, you will always be in my heart and will always be my home. Good luck for the future and hopefully one day we will be reunited.”

Beram Kayal signs off with 131 Brighton appearances and five goals to his name. That may seem like a small amount for a player who has been at the Amex for six years, but Kayal’s impact stretches far beyond numbers.

His signing, his talent and his fight began the initial on-the-pitch turnaround in the second half of the 2014-15 season. He drove the Albion onto heights that surprised everyone in 2015-16, helped deliver promotion in 2016-17 and then played small but important roles in Premier League survival in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Beram Kayal will rightly go down as a Brighton great – and as the man himself said, hopefully one day we will be reunited. For now though, this is goodbye and thank you.